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This week, we told you about a teen who got his Xbox taken away. Hardly an unusual occurrence, to be sure. Only it wasn't a parent or teacher who made this 13-year-old surrender his gaming console.

It was a judge who wanted to teach the youngster a lesson about what it felt like to have something of value taken away.

The Irish teen, you see, is being charged with a series of burglaries. When the judge asked him which of his possessions meant the most to him, he cited his Xbox. Thus, the unusual and very modern-day punishment.

The story got us wondering. Which gadget would you miss most if forced to give it up by a judge/teacher/parent/sister/brother/significant other/superhero?

More importantly, perhaps, given that today's gadgets enable everything--calling, texting, playing games, networking, streaming movies, searching, GPS navigating, and just about anything else you could think of--which tech-related activity would you feel most lost without? Vote in our poll and be sure to add your thoughts in the comments. … Read more

Quadraphonic was the first music surround format, and the first to bite the dust. That was in the 1970s. The SACD and DVD-A formats debuted at the dawn of the century, promising vastly improved sound quality over the CD, and both formats flopped. Their futures looked bright, so why did they fail?

Of course the record labels knew selling a new format on the basis of sound quality was a risky business, so they tacked on 5.1 surround sound. There were millions of households in the early 2000s with multichannel home theaters, so selling new music surround formats looked … Read more

Set in 2054, "Minority Report" revealed a future in which natural user interfaces play a major role. A memorable scene features Tom Cruise controlling a large interactive screen with illuminated gloves, gesturing back and forth to navigate through an NUI.

Less than a decade after the movie hit theaters, we now have Microsoft's $150 Kinect accessory for Xbox 360, which provides a similar experience to the one seen in the movie--without requiring special gloves or a multimillion dollar computer setup.

People have primarily used a mouse and keyboard to interact with computers for decades; this seems silly considering that nearly every other computer component has evolved significantly in the same time frame. Now that the Kinect SDK is available for Windows 7, natural user interfaces have more opportunity than ever to change how we interact with computers.

Supportive technology such as speech recognition (which has already matured greatly, as this week's launch of Google Voice Search for desktop computers highlighted), Microsoft Surface, and 3D Immersive Touch are all stepping stones to something far greater in the evolution of computer interaction. It's inevitable that years from now, aspects of these technologies will work together to free us from pressing keys and clicking buttons.

So, what do you think the most exciting possibilities for natural user interfaces are? Vote in our weekly poll. And please be sure to elaborate in the comments section.… Read more

E3 2011 is officially over, but with it came lots of new details on hardware and software from the three major players in console video games.

Microsoft showed off a slew of upcoming Kinect-enabled titles, plus Live TV on the Xbox and some exclusive games. YouTube and Bing will also be available via the Xbox, while voice control will enable players to interact with the Xbox and future games in a unique way.

Nintendo perhaps stole the show, revealing the successor to the Nintendo Wii: the Wii U. The gaming giant also revealed a special new controller for its upcoming console that contains a 6.2-inch touch screen and other familiars, somewhat like a tablet. The company also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Zelda in grand fashion.

Sony, meanwhile, stunned many with the news that the quad-core handheld gaming device once known as NGP and now known as PlayStation Vita would have two models that cost less than $300. The Japanese company also surprised everyone with the announcement of a 24-inch PlayStation-branded 3D HDTV with dual passive 3D view, enabling two gamers to see different things on the same TV.

Which console company impressed you the most during E3 2011? Vote in our weekly poll. And please be sure to elaborate in the comments section.… Read more

Update, June 10, 2011: CEA President Gary Shapiro responds

The Consumer Electronics Association recently commissioned a poll that found that fewer than 8 percent of US households use over-the-air broadcast as their sole means of receiving television programming. This number has been descending, according to the CEA, since 2005.

It is the CEA's position that because fewer and fewer households are getting their TV from over-the-air (OTA), the wireless spectrum used for these broadcasts should be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

In other words, do away with free over-the-air broadcasts as we know it.

While it's true … Read more

This week, KingMax announced a 64GB MicroSD card that puts the equivalent of two and a half Blu-ray discs in a container the size of a thumbnail.

The range of sizes and formats available in memory cards these days is mind-boggling, with jaw-dropping 128GB SDXC options slowly slipping into the mainstream.

Just trying to imagine what I would put on a 64GB (or higher) storage card to feel like I'm really taking advantage of it is difficult. Some easy candidates come to mind, such as RAW images and PSD files with dozens (or even hundreds) of layers, HD movies, entire discographies, and so on. But will the average person ever use all of the real estate in a high-capacity card? It's hard to say. Regardless, as manufacturers continue to inflate these cards, smaller capacities will become more inexpensive, which is great for the consumer.

If you were to buy a memory card today, what size would you choose and why? Sound off in our poll, and be sure to elaborate in the comments section on how size matters to you. Does more storage space just mean empty space to you? Or will you just get lazier about cleaning off old data? Is there even such a thing as large enough? … Read more

We've witnessed a fascinating evolution in computer hardware during the last couple of decades.

Through the mid-'90s and up until very recently, most of you either owned a laptop or a desktop--or both.

Desktops were critical for work, school, and gaming--a dependable workhorse and the first computer experience for most. Laptops then became a staple for many, especially when the devices became cheaper, more powerful, and infused with longer battery life.

Many of you remember when PDAs hit the scene; they were rather clunky in design and had somewhat arduous to use operating systems. And you can't forget about the meager battery life and expensive data charges.

Evolution swept up the mess. And now we're on the precipice of a dual-core smartphone becoming the norm with access to thousands of apps that can do just about anything. Wireless data is affordable and fast and is often easily available. … Read more

When I first signed up for a PlayStation Network account years ago, never did it occur to me that my personal information would end up in the wrong hands. A wide-scale breach of a major game network of that size had never really happened before. Gamers safely played under a digital umbrella--now an illusion--of a secure network, thinking Sony was large, powerful, and had the resources to thwart any attack.

Then down came the rain--hard--and washed the illusion away.

The next blow, should it happen, could prove to be one of the worst public relations disasters to ever strike a consumer electronics company. Hackers say they have access to some of Sony's servers and plan to publicize all or some of the information they can copy from those servers. This may include consumers' credit card details. (A source tells CNET that this group of hackers claims to have access to Sony's servers, which are different from the servers already hacked to expose more than 77 million user accounts.) … Read more

Do you own an Android-powered smartphone or tablet? If so, how's your battery life?

I ask because based on what I've heard from others and experienced myself, it's atrocious. And I'm wondering if it's symptomatic of the Android platform as a whole, or just the nature of modern-day mobile gear. Cast your vote in our poll, then meet me below for more discussion.

As I noted in a recent BNET post, "The dirty Android secret no one's talking about," I first encountered battery issues with the Virgin Mobile Samsung Intercept. Out of the box, it couldn't last 24 hours--even with e-mail sync and other battery-consuming tasks disabled.

Rather, I'd start the day with it fully charged, and by late afternoon it would be dead. Thankfully, freeware app JuiceDefender made a huge difference, allowing me to go a full two days without AC assistance.

Then I updated the OS from 2.1 to 2.2 (Froyo), which I'd heard was much better at power management--and battery life actually got worse. Now, once again, I'm lucky to get 24 hours.

Last week I had the opportunity to review Samsung's Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi, which I found to be excellent overall--until the next morning, when I woke up to--wait for it--a dead tablet. The aforementioned JuiceDefender helps a little, but ultimately the Tab is seriously hobbled by its battery. And I am seriously disappointed.… Read more